The present invention relates to hummingbird feeders, and more specifically to an extended hummingbird feeder tube adapted for use with an upright reservoir.
Hummingbirds have a fast breathing rate, a fast heartbeat, and a high body temperature. As a result, they must feed every ten minutes or so throughout the day, and consume as much as two-thirds of their total body weight in a single day. While they eat both nectar and insects, about a third of a hummingbird""s diet is sugar, which is obtained from flower nectar and tree sap.
Hummingbirds have bills that are long and tapered, perfectly suited for probing into the center of tubular flowers, such as trumpet vines, for the nectar. A hummingbird""s tongue is approximately one and one-half times the length of its bill, tube-like in nature, and is used to dart deep into the flowers for nectar, taking up liquid by a capillary action.
Various hummingbird feeders are known in the industry which attempt to replicate the flower feeding experience for a hummingbird. Feeders are made which hang vertically with feeder tubes extending downward. Other feeders are comprised of horizontal, hanging reservoirs with feeding tubes emanating therefrom. These feeding tubes often replicate flower blossoms and are colored in nature in order to attract the hummingbirds.
Three problems exist, however, with traditional feeding tubes. First, the tubes, as currently known in the art, do not replicate or encourage a true feeding experience for hummingbirds. The stem of a typical feeding tube does not extend for the full length of a hummingbird""s bill. The proportional dimension of the feeding tube diameter and length are not realistic. Consequently, when a hummingbird places its bill in such a stem, its tongue extends well beyond the stem, thereby negating the capillary action of the tongue and failing to replicate the sensation of feeding from a flower. As a result, these types of feeding tubes are not as effective for encouraging the feeding of hummingbirds.
Second, due to the shortness of the stem, the feeder becomes ineffective once the fluid contained therein falls below the bottom of the stem. When this happens, a hummingbird inserts its tongue past the stem and makes contact with air rather than fluid. As a result, the hummingbird believes that there is no more xe2x80x9cnectarxe2x80x9d in the feeder and leaves, even though this is not the case. The remaining fluid is wasted, based on non-use. While feeding tubes exist that are longer in nature, they typically are used in conjunction with downward-facing hummingbird feeders and are not inserted into the reservoir itself, but rather are suspended from the orifice of the reservoir. This configuration does not pose the problem of having fluid go unused because gravity continually draws fluid into the tube. However, leaking and the attraction of annoying insects such as wasps, bees, and ants are problematic with this type of inverted feeder tube.
Third, because typical feeder tubes do not substantially extend into the feeder reservoir, insects with short tongues, such as bees, are encouraged to feed on the xe2x80x9cnectar,xe2x80x9d thereby depleting the amount left for hummingbirds. A narrower, longer tube would discourage these insects from attempting to steal xe2x80x9cnectarxe2x80x9d from these feeders.
Thus, there is a need for an extended hummingbird feeder tube which is of sufficient length and a proportional internal diameter so that it replicates a tubular flower feeding experience while also discouraging insects and maximizing the use of the fluid contained in the feeder.
It is thus one aspect of the present invention to provide a more realistic feeding tube adapted for use with a hummingbird feeding reservoir in order to encourage more hummingbird feeding activity. It is a further aspect of the present invention to provide a hummingbird feeding tube which efficiently utilizes the fluid contained in an upright reservoir.
Thus, in one embodiment of the present invention a hummingbird feeding tube is comprised of a tube with an annular lip in the shape of a blossom, whereby the length of the stem extends substantially to the bottom of the upright reservoir and is at least about six times as long as the internal diameter of the feeding tube. This configuration more closely replicates a hummingbird""s feeding experience with a trumpet vine blossomxe2x80x94a hummingbird favorite. Due to a hummingbird""s ability to extend its tongue well beyond its bill, it is critical that the tongue be given the proper receptor in order to facilitate its capillary action. Shorter versions of the feeding tube allow a hummingbird""s tongue to wander freely, which negates this capillary action, thereby impeding a hummingbird""s ability to feed. By extending the length of the feeding tube, it assures that the majority of the fluid in the reservoir is accessible by the hummingbird.
Accordingly, in one aspect of the present invention, a feeder tube adapted for use with an upright hummingbird feeding reservoir with an aperture for receiving said feeder tube is provided, comprising:
(a) a tube having an internal diameter and a length defined by an upper end and a lower end, wherein said length of said tube is at least about six times the dimension of said internal diameter and extends to substantially a lowermost portion of the reservoir; and
(b) an annular lip integrally interconnected to said upper end of said tube and having a second diameter greater than an external diameter of said upright hummingbird feeding reservoir aperture.